Sioux Gity Illustrated: 



THE PIONEER PERIOD 



AND AN AUTHENTIC SKETCH OP 

THE SIOUX BUY OF TO-DRY 



EMBRACING 



The Stages of Its IDevelopment and Halation to the 
(ippep fIDissoupi Walley, 



W I T H 



OVER SIXTY II^I^USTRATIONS, AND AN ART1C1,JS ON THE FAMOUS CORN PALACE. 



EDITED BY E. P. HEIZER. 



SIOUX CITY. A.\D OMAHA. 

D. C. DUNBAR & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. 

i88S. 



Perkins Bbos. Co., PoiNTtRs and Bimiers, Sioux City, Iowa. 




/^4^ 







THE 8IODX CITY COKN PALACE-SECOND ANNUAL FHJTIVAL- 
8EFTEMHEK Wtb TO OCTOBEK (Vra. IW8. 




EAHl^V HISTOHV. 



THE PIONEER PERIOD OF SIOUX CITY. 




I'HISTORY of Sioux City may be conveniently considered in two distinct epochs, 

viz.: tlie period during which it was connected with the movement of trade 

and settlement which pierced the Northwest, following the waterway of the 

Missouri River; and the later period during which its growth has been determined by 

the comprehensive transfer of population, effected by the building of railroads west- 

wardly. The former epoch began with the arrival, in June, 1856, of the first steamboat 

freighted for Sioux City, which, that year, grew to be a town of 400 inhabitants; it may 

he said to close with the completion of the first railroad, in March, 1868. 

All that goes before — and it would make a chapter of romantic story — relates to the time of pure 

adventure in the northwest, rather than to its .substantial development; it includes the day of exploration, 

of the French voyageui-, of the trader and the trapper. 

The first account of the visit of white men to Woodbury County is that of the famous exploring 
expedition of Lewis and Clark, in 1804. This is immortalized by the names they gave to localities, 
and one spot is sacred as the last resting place of the first of their number who fell during the expedition. 
On the 20th of August, 1804, Sergt. Charles Floyd died and was buried by his comrades on a high bluff 
overlooking the Missouri River. The grave is still to be seen on the bluff which bears his name, and his 
memory has a more enduring record in the Floyd River, which, passing through the city limits of Sioux 
City, empties into the Missouri two miles above this bluff. 

In the summer of 1848, a single pioneer, William Thompson, settled at Floyd's Bluff, his brother 
and another man joining him in the fall. Next year he laid out a town there, calling it Thompson- 
ville. Thompson's cabin was the sole improvement, but on the organization of the county, in 1853, 
the villa was made the county seat, and it was a sort of post for Indian traders for some years. 
Not a vestige of Thompsonville remains. 

In May, 1849, Theophili Brughier, a French Canadian, settled at the mouth of the Big Sioux 
two miles above the original Sioux City, but now within the city limits — the most beautiful spot in the 



StOVX CITY ILLVSTRATKD. 

iiortiliwi^st, and kiu)\vii ns Riverside Paj'k. Brugliier liad hoen in tlu' (Miiploy of the Aiiiorican Fur 
Cl(iiiii)Hiiy, l>uti leaving tlieiii and joining the Yankton Sioux Indians he married tlie (biughter of their 
celebrated ciiief, AVar Eagle. He accjuired great inHuence anitmg the Indians, ami War Eagle died 
at liis hous<* in 1851. Tlie remains of tlie old chief, with those of his daughter, Brughier's wife, 
and several others of the family, now repose on the summit of a lofty bluff near the moutli of the 
Big Sioux River, within the i)resent city limits. 

The next two settlers of 1849 were Robert Perry, who settled on the creek which bears his name, 
flowing now tlnough tlie heart of the city, and Paul Pacquette, who settled on the Big Sioux. 

In the spring of 1852, .Joseph Leonias purchased of Brughier the quarter section on which the 
business portion of Sioux City is now built. 




BIRD S-EVE VIEW UNION STOCK YAUDS. 

1— H(>oj;e PuckioK House. 2— Fowler Packing House. 3— Silberhorn Packing Hoaee. 4— Proposed Swift Packing House. 

.'i— South Sioux City. 6— Morning Side Addition. 7— Excliange Building. 

There was no further improvement until 1854, when Dr. John K. Cook, who had a contract under the 
goverumeut to survey a part of Northwestern Iowa, lantled here. Refusing to be intimidated by a baud 
of Indians uuder Smutty Bear, their chief, who were encamped here. Dr. Cook, impressed with the 
commercial importance of the site and the beauty of the surroundings, boldly located a claim, as did 
several of his party, and began to lay out Sioux City in December, 1854. Dr. Cook's claim and tlie 
original town site lay on the west side of Perry Creek, but the next spring he purchased of Joseph 
Leonias his quarter section and laid out Sioux City East addition. 

It would require more space than there is at command to chronicle the interesting events of the next 
few years. Indians frequently passed through the town in war paint, and uttering whoops, sometimes 
admonishing the settlers to leave, but no violence or bloodshed occurred. In the spring of 1855 there 



SIOUX CITY ILLVHTRATED. 

were two log cabins on the site of Sioux City, lu .July of this year the first stage ami mail arrivetl. Dr. 
Cix)k WHS the first postumstfT. Before the close of IH")") there were seven loy huu.ses, two heing hotels. 
There were two stores, one in a tent and the other in a log cabin. A land office was opene<l for pre-emption, 
but not for sale till May, 1857. The County Seat was remove«l here from Floyd's Bluff, or Thorn psonville, 
in 1856. Sioux City was incorporated by an Act of the liegislature, approved January 10. 1857, and the 
first city el(>ction ttxik place August 'M, 1857. The first newspaper was edited by Seth \V. SwiggetL It 
was called the Sioux City Eagle ami was first issued July -4, 1857. 

As before stated, the first steHmlx)at, freighted for Sioux tUty, arrive<l in June, 1856, bringing 
provisions and ready-framed ht>u8es. The base of supplies was then, and for years after, St Ix>uis, and 
transi>ortation was by way of the Missouri River. The oonmianding commercial relation of Sioux City to 
the great Northwest, even at that early day, was clearly perceived, since from it, n.'* a de|K)t, freights were 




IIOOaB I'ACKINO <V>. B CnANT. 



distributed by water carriage to the trading posts, government stations, and scattered settlements of the 
upper Missouri valley. This was the original niinan <rrlrr of Sioux City. .Vt its inception it was a depot 
and distributing center to the Northwest. 

During 1K5(; the jjopulation increased t<» llM), and aixiut ninety buildings were erected. 

It must be remembered that this was before the day of railroad development west of the Mississippi 
River. Two or three weak lines had been constructed for short distances west of that river, but 
their progress was slow. The Pacific railroads were yet far in the future. Chicago, even, was yet in its 
ilay of small things, and the settlement of the upper Mississipjji valley, from which Chicago later fe<l its 
majestic strength, was only in its beginnings. The upper Missouri valley, opening alK)ve Sioux City, was 
still a primeval wilderness, still to be di8put«d with the countless bands of Indians and buffalo which 
roamed over it 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

But Sioux City grew steadily with the extension of settlement westwardly. It is needless now to 
recount the various stages of growth by which, in 1868, the advent of the first railroad, it reached a 
popiilation of 1,030. This was the day of the steamboat, the stage, tlie freighter's wagon. AVhile these 
things remained many years after the opening of the first railroad — notably during the four years, begin- 
ning in 1875, when the Black Hills mines were discovered, — yet the advent of the railroad in 1868 
revolutionized the movement of trade through Sioux City to the Northwest, finally fixing the base 




'~- ,M. rffifc- «.fc»* ^. 




R. D. FOWLEB PACKING CO. S PLAKT. 



of supply at Chicago instead of at St. Louis. The change marked a new era in the history both of 
Sioux City and the Northwest; it involved for them an ampler and more energetic development. 

But the material fact indicated by the history of the old era, as well as of the new, is the commercial 
identity of Sioux City with the upper Missouri valley, whether the distribution of supplies was effected 
from St. Louis or from Chicago as the base. 



SIOQX eiTV OF TO^DAV. 



Oil till' Mti' iif I )r. C'i«>k'.s cliiiiii in l^^o-t, iiihI tlif iitlditinus tlit-ri-to siiici' iiiinlf. tlit'r«> is imw a I'ity <'f 
yi'.iKKJ iiilmhitHiit.H. Such c-lmiigo from a iiiniiiM-r settlement to u i-ouiiuautliug triulo contxr i-^ n transition 
which ctmld occur only in the west 

It is not tlie intention here to describe in detail the Sioux City of to-day. but rather to reserve space 
for some exposition of the logic of its situation. A few representative facts, however, may be briefly 
smumarized. 




HlI.IIKIIIIiiKN rACKIMI I'o. s I'T.WT. 



The Sioux City of the railroad epocli, iM'j;iniiiii;i in IHfJH, when the Sioux C'ity A I'acitic Kailroad was 
opened to Missouri X'alley, seventy miles soiitli. making t'onntM-tion there with an east and west railroad, 
shared the rising enthusiasm of tlit^ Northwest, iukI j^Tew steadily. During the next few years enter- 
jirising men projected lines of road into the region about Sioux City northwardly with a view to 
ultimate conntM'tion with the Northern I'aoific, northwesterly through Southern Dakota, and directly west 
through Northern Nebraska from the opiM>8ite shore of the Missouri. Nearly all these routes have l)eeu 
since occupied by trunk or branch lines railiating from Sioux City. Imt then there was success in 
building only a few spurs, when railroad ent«>rprise was smitt4'n with the general industrial paralysis 
which followed the great failure of Jay Cooke \- Co.. in 1M78. 

But, Sioux City growing stea<lily, had a |K)pulation of i,2\H) in 1875, and the federal census of 
1880 showed an increase to 7,3G0 inhabitants. The state census of 1885, fixed the jKipulatiou then at 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

19,060, and a census taken eighteen months later, including territory since added by the extension of the 
corporate limits, showed a population of 26,000. 

The notable growth of Sioux City, it will be seen, has been since 1880, and in fact 20,000 of the 
30,000 of its present population have been drawn hither since 1882. 

Sioux City, to-day, is the center of five great trunk lines of railway which have thirteen main 
and branch lines diverging hence, through Northern Iowa, Southern Minnesota, Nebraska, Dakota, 
Wyoming and Montana. These companies have machine shops here and a railroad bridge across the 
Missouri River, costing $1,250,000, is approaching completion. Thirty-six passenger trains arrive and 
depart daily. 

The largest jobbing center in Iowa, Sioux City is also the largest jobbing center in the Nortliwest, 




SlOtrX fITY PIX>W CO.— OFFICE AND WORKS. 



filling its own distinct field and competing with Omaha on the one hand and Minneapolis and St. Paul 
on the other. All the principal lines of jobbing are represented. The sales foi' 1887 amounted to over 
$8,500,000. Two hundred commercial travelers represent tiie city in the tributai-y territ<iry. While 
within half a decade population has (juadrupled, business has increased eightfold. 

The total expenditures for building impi-ovements during 1887, on a careful and accurate basis of 
ascertainment, were $2,854,856; for 1886, $1,292,528; for 1885, $1,02-1,471; for 1884, $980,395; for 1883, 
$660,949; for 1882, $637,324. 

There are nine banking houses, with a capital of $2,000,000, which in 1887 sold exchange to the 
amount of $57,000,000 — a banking interest exceeding that of any other city in Iowa. The postal receipts 
in 1887 were $46,017, against $32,211 in 1886, while the money order business was $954,345.46, an increase 
of 30 per cent, over 1886. The telegraph business is the largest in the Northwest, there being a 



SIOCX CITY ILLISTRATED. 

remBrkable increase durinR tli«> i)aHt two years, while the business of the three express companies 
rf'prPKoiited liere has trflilfd (hiring; tho sniiie period. 

Simix City isono of tlie five grentewt packing cent«^rs in the I'nited States. There are three great pack- 
ing estahliHlinients— those of Botjge, Silberliom, and Fowler. These have a rapacity of la.lMH) hogs 
and iOCtO beevcH per day. In addition, it is jiraj-tically assured that one of the largest ilresseil beef 
establishinents in thi- \M>r!(l will Im- locatt'd ami built livi-f during the passing year. 




OKFICB AND WARERUOM8 SlOrX OTTT CBACKKB AND CANDY OO. 

Tlic Stock Yards, in the vicinity of which the packing houses are situated, are ont> of the most 
iniiH)rtunt fiictnis in Sioux City's growth. They grew out of the concentration here of live-stock 
tiansuctionH, ami. iiltliuugli founded less than throe years ago, they have accoiuinodations for t),0()0 hogs, 
lO.WM) cattle, 'J,(MH) slioej), and '2,()(K) horses. Over $7r>0,000 was expended last year in improving this 
property, and extensive improvements are being made this year. The yards include 1,4(K) acres of 
suburban land and 2<)0 city lots. 



SIOVX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

In acUlition to the packing establishments, which give employment to hundreds of men, there are the 
Linseed Oil Mill — the second largest in the world— Flour Mills, Foundries, Machine Shops, Candy and 
Cracker Factory, Oatmeal Mill, Brick and Tile Works, Plow Works, Vinegar and Pickling Works, etc. 

The public improvements are in harmony with Sioux City's progressive character, and yet so rapid is 
its growth that they are in rear of the public demand. In 1887 nearly a million dollars was expended in 
betterments of a purely public character, and a much larger sum will l)e expended this year. The city has 
sixty miles of graded streets, fifteen miles of cedar block paving, fourteen miles of street railway, and five 
of motor line in operation. Five miles of cable car line is projected for this season, while construction 




SIoI-X CITY VINEliAR AND I'lCKLINli WORKS. 



has begun on five miles of new motor line, which is to be connected with the business heart of the city by 
an elevated railway. 

The city is located between three rivers, affording admirable drainage. Tliis liealthful situation 
is made perfect by the modern system of sewage. 

Among other notable features the following few may be mentioned: 

1. The finest water-works in the Northwest, consisting of two Holly-Gastel patent pumps of 
4,000,000 gallons daily capacity, with reservoir of 1,500,000 gallons capacity and twenty-one miles of mains, 

2. A i)aid professional fire department. 

3. One of the finest Opera Houses in the West, almost completed. 

4. The largest Telej)hone Exchange in Iowa. 

5. Gas and Electric Lights, etc. 



SlUlX CITY ILU'sr HATED. 

6. Four daily— one morning and three evening — papers, beniiieB a variety of weekly and other 
pericxUcftls. 

7. An unriviilletl syHtem uf |iuljlio education; dmrohert of all den<iniinationB; benevolent and 
charitnitle organ izutions; public library; Y. M. (". A. i>uilding (planne<l); Samaritan Homo ( hospital ), 
miiintnined by the WonuMi's Christian AssiK-iation, etc., et*;. 

H. Sioux City .lolibors' find Miiniifactur<»rB' Aswicintion, mnintnining a snliiriiMl ('•miniihisioner 
of freightH, and the Cliatiiber of Couimorcc AHHiK-iation. 




i^'St 




^^"^'■m 



HlOtrX riTY Kl)IM>UV AMI MAIHINR WORKS. 



Such are only a handful of facts chosen from a multitude of others because they are representative 
factw. From them may Iw inferred some idea of the scene of Sioux City n.s it is. IJut this further 
fact must bi> borne ill mind: that, as two-thirds of Sioux City's ;)fl,0(M) jxipnlation has been added since 188'2, 
so nearly all the great improvement'i above mentioned have been built >ip within the same short period. 
The oil mill has been built within four years; five banks within f(mr; four new lines of railroad within 
two; the street cars within three and the mot^)r line within a yoar-and-a-half ; the water-works within two; 
all the j)aving within two; the stock-yards within two; while within the year just passed two of the three 
great packing establisliments. the railroad bridge, the opera Imuse, etc., have l)een secured. 

'J'he Siiiux City of Tu-day and the Sioux City of Yesterday, the modern metropolis and the frontier 
settlement —where is there a broader contrast or a more magical transition? 



8^5^?S»^ 



SIGQX GITY'S SIGniFIGADGE. 



KEliATION TO THE UPPER MISSOURI VAI,I,EY. 



The logic of the situation of Sioux City miast not be confouiuled with that of scores and hunch'eils 
of thriving towns in the west. The latter are, as a rule, as all but a comparatively few cities must 
be, essentially local. They are prosperous, but their trade and influence are circumscribed within a 
comparatively small territory. 




-^^siiiigiMaKltaiiHiiiK.. 

.SIl)l!X lilTY BRICK AND TTLE WORKS. 

In bold contrast with the multitude of essentially local trading i)oints of the west, Sioux City has been 
fashi(med by the same class of forces which have built up Kansas City, Omaha, and Minneapolis 
and St. Paul, independent market cities and capitals of great trade empires of their own. To understand 
Sioux City is to understand the development of the upper Missouri valley. To have an adequate 
conception of the significance of Sioux City, requires first to appreciate that gigantic movement of 
population, which, within the past ten years, has transferred from the States north of the Ohio River, a 
million of population into the specific region because of W'hose growth Sioux City has grown. Just as 
Cincinnati grew to trade primacy in the Ohio valley with the advance of settlement from over the 
AUeghanies down that waterway; just as later the advance of railways westward from Chicago poured 
the wealth of Iowa, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois and Michigan into its lap, making it a wonder of 
growth and power; just as later the sudden out-reaching of railroads thrt)ugh Kansas and the Southwest 



SIOVX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

runclo KnnHnM City; just as still lnt<>r the buihliiit,' <>f tho Uniim Pacific fed tho streiifjth of Oiniilin; Just as 
the Northern Pacific and the Manitoba systems, tapping the wheat j^anary of the coutinent to the north, 
lifted Minneapolis and St Paul — just so, to complete tlie whole field, have the new energies and develop- 
ing resotirces of tlie upi>«»r Missouri valley at once require«l ami create<l here the triule center which Hiuux 
City is. Tlie forces workin;,' to these great ends are indentical in all these cases, and tiie parallelism 
complete. 

Consider iM>me of the details of development of the tributary empire with which Sioux C-ity has to 
do. Vavm to the distant obsen'er the map suggests some of them. 




OFFICE, MIIX AND KLEVATOn— CITY MILL rOMPANT. 

Sioux City is situated at the point where the Missouri River makes the great 1 d t<> the west, just as 

at Kansas City it makes the great bend to the north. Precisely at Sioux City the drainage systems of 
Nortliwt'stern Iowa, Northern Nebraska and the whole of Southern Dakota, converge. The Pig Sioux 
River from due nortli, forming tlie boundary line between Iowa and Dakota, joins the Mis.souri, and the 
angle thus formed includes the west and south boundaries of the corporate limits of Sioux City. From 
the confluence with the Sioux River, the Missouri flows over 100 miles from almost due west, forming 
the boundary line between Dakota and Nebraska. The whole of the southeastern quarter of Dakota is 
drained by the James and Veriiiiilioii Rivi>rs and iiinnnierable smaller streams which flow almost due 
south, parallel to the Sioux, their fertile valleys debouching uiK)n the ^lissouri at sliort distances alHive 
Sioux City. The drainage of Northern Nebraska is tho exact complement of that of Southern Dakota, 
the Niobrara flowing northeast and joining the Missouri where it ceases to be the boundary line between 
Nebraska and Dakota, while from that point to Sioux City scores of minor streams flow northerly and 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

northeasterly through Nebraska to a confluence with the Missouri. On the Iowa side the whole north- 
western quarter of the State, with a portion of Minnesota, is drained into the Missouri at Sioux City, the 
Sioux River at its mouth forming its western boundary, as before stated, the Floyd River passing throiigh 
the city limits, and the Little Sioux entering the Missouri at no great distance below. 

Remember, now, that the trade territory of Sioux City in Northwestern Iowa aU)ne is 8,000 square 
miles draining naturally, as in trade, to this point. Remember that Southern Dakota which opens 
northwestwardly from Sioux City as a gate, includes 60,000 square miles, while due west of Sioux City 
there is in Northern Nebraska 26,000 square miles. Here is a territory of 94,000 sqiiare miles which 
centers naturally and infallibly at Sioux City. And let it be borne in mind, moreover, that this territory, 
immense as it is, is only part of the territory now actually occupied or reached by Sioux City's trade. 




SIOUX CITY GAS LIGHT CO. S WOltKS. 



To illustrate its importance and immensity, attention need only be called to the fact that, just west of the 
Missouri River, after it again turns north, at a point over 100 miles west of Sioux City, lies the great 
Sioux Indian Reservation, a splendid agricultural and grazing region, of which 1(),0()() square miles — an 
area of incomparably richer natural resources than any one of a dozen States of the Union, which might 
be mentioned — has just been opened by Congress to settlement. The drainage of this region flows almost 
due east into the Missouri, and along the valleys of these tributary streams, two great corporations — the 
Chicago, Milwaukee it St. Paul, and the Chicago & Northwestern— are hastening to build lines into the 
wonderful mineral and cattle regions beyond, carrying the fruits of the same over their main systems to 
Sioux City; and, on the other hand, fi'om it as the distributing point supplying them and the thousands of 
settlers who will flock into that territory. 

But the significant fact is that so vast a country as this Sioux reservation, now newly opened to 



Slor.X CITY lU.VSTHATEli. 

(li'vilopiiicnt, is iiiily II frnctioii of Siuux City'H trnilo U^rritory, Ixminl up in a t-oiiiiiioii iiitt-rcst witli it 
nlikf by tlio artiticinl syHt<'ins of coiuumuieation uihI tin- pliysiciil outlim-s and i'i>iir<iriuati<>ii of tlif country. 
Tliifl is why there is a city where Si<jux City is. 

lu tlie early day, Hettleinent of the Northwest folK>we<l the water coiirBeB, ami the trade Hujiply thereof 
went l>y tlie water routes. Conse<iiiently Sioux City was tlie natural and net-essary depot for the upper 
MisHonri valley; for the Missouri is navij,'nlile l.iMKI miles alM»ve Sioux City. .Ami precisely so, too, when 
railroads were pushed into the Northwest, the converj^iny jxuiit, according to the indications of the {Trades 
of the streams, was at Sioux City. It is interesting t»j mite, in this connection, that the first railroad to 
reach Sioux City, the Sioux City k Pacific, was iliverted from a i)rojected west line across Nebraska t<> 
a junction with tin- ('nion Pacific, t<j its present line south to C^)iuicil Hluffs, because of the absence of 




PllcMiii. Mll.WAI'KKK \ ST. rAI'I. TA-SSHNdKU l>Erc)T. 



engineering ditticulties along the Missouri valley. Sci, too. tlie railroad systems which have since 
gridironed the Northwest have followetl tlie valleys of these streams which converge at Sioux C'ity. 

Here, then, is a tributary territory opening westwardly and nortlnvestwardly from Sioux City which 
it is no exaggeration to term an empire. To be itlentilii'd with it,s expanding development is to be a great 
city, and the fact i>f sm-h connection explains the growth of Sioux City. For, be it remembered, within 
all this realm Sioux City has not even a single rival. Chicago is distant 044 miles to the east; Minne- 
apolis and St. Paul 270 mih^s northeast, and Omaha ovei- ln(l miles du«* south. It was not till after 18H0 
that the tlixxl of immigration began to pour into this territ<iry, and since then over rj(K>,0(Ht settlers have 
been aihled to Dakota, and 'JtHM^O*' to Northern Nebraska, and 10<i,(MMI to fifteen counties around Sioux City 
iu Northwestern Iowa. .\nd this has been the period of Sioux City's growth: railroads have lieen 
extended, towns and villages sprung up and tin' prairie turned into improvetl farms. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



It is necessary now to consider a fact which, resting on the fundamental relation to the upper 
Missouri valley, is the key-stone of the arch of Sioux City's prosperity —its relation to the corn region of 
the Northwest and the mutual relations between the corn and range regions of the Northwest. 

What, among immediate causes, most of all has made Sioux City great? The soil of the region just 
about it. What in the soil? Those properties which make it the greatest corn section, not only in the 
United States, but also in the world. Take the territory about Sioux City, including Northwestern Iowa, 
and the adjacent land in Southern Dakota and Northern Nebraska within a radius of 100 miles, extending 
indefinitely upwards along the flood plains of the Missouri Kiver and its tributaries, and the United 
States may be challenged for another region equalling or approaching this as a corn country. It is not 
to be understood because stress is laid upon this region as a corn country, as the best corn country which 




CHICAOO, ST. PAUL MINNEAPOLIS k OMAHA SHOPS. 

the sun shines on, that it is not also, and for the same reasons which make it a corn country, surpassingly 
fruitful in all the substantial cereals and other agriciiltural products. 

This is the ijre-emineiit corn country of the continent, because it lias never had, from any cause, a 
failure of corn. Urouglit and excessive moisture do not disastrously atfect it, as they do the corn fields of 
Eastern Iowa, Illinois, and sections adjacent thereto. The latter, indeed, are splendid producers of corn, 
but successful years in that crop alternate with failures. The crowning felicity of the Sioux City corn 
field, the pre-eminent excellence of the Northwestern soil, is not merely its extraordinary fertility, but 
also its average availability for agricultural purposes, year after year. Thus, while in 1887, a year of dis- 
astrous failui'e of corn in Eastern Iowa and Illinois, there was, in Nebraska, not many miles from Sioux 
City, a field growing 85 bushels of corn to the acre, the same being the twenty-sixth successive corn crop 
on the same field, there has not been known, in thirty years, a single failure of the corn crop in the 
Northwestern region. Moreover, the peculiar character of the soil oi the Northwestern corn field makes 
it much more easy and far less expensive to cultivate to plow, to plant, to tend the crop. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

All tlipsp facts nppear as well from scientific pxnmination of these boHb as from practical experience; 
and an ailequate study of them clears away the mystery, how the people, now partially occu|)ying them, 
have l)een able to accumulate, in ten or fifteen years, as much wealth as it required twenty-five or fifty 
years to accumulate in other portions of the West which are themselves regardetl as extraordinarily fertile 
and which really are so. Proiessor Charles A. White, now of Smithsonian Institution at Washington, 




I'HAVKY IIROS., WIIDLKSALK IIAIIKWAHE. 



D. C, made an exhaustive survey of these soils, i)ul)lisliing the result-^ of his explorations in two 
large volumos wliich are regarded as standard autliority in tiie scientific world on hotli sides of the Ocean. 
The soils of the corn district of the northwest, as described above, are three in niunber, the drift, the 
"bluff" or loess, as the (lermans call a similar soil iu the famous valley of the Rhiue, and the alluvial. 
The drift covers the larger portion of the area described, the undulating prairie being an example. It 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

covers the earth like a mantle, hiding the stratified rocks from view. It forms both the soil and tlie sub- 
soil, the average depth in Northwestern Iowa being '200 feet and rarely falling as hm as 100 feet. It is 
one profound mass of rich soil. Two all-important consequences follow. In the first place, there are, 
near the surface, no indurated clay or rock strata to act as a bowl, retaining excessive moisture. In short, 
the surface drift is naturally underdrained, so that superabundant rainfall, which would cause total fail- 
ure of crops on tlie thinner drift of other parts of Iowa and the west, has never produced such a result in 
Northwestern Iowa since its original settlement. And, in the second place, on account of precisely the 




FIR.ST NATIONAL BANK. 



same conditions, no other soil can so resist the evil effects of drought. The vast depth of tine, friable 
drift, acts as a sponge to retain meager moisture, whereas a thin soil, however rich, resting on a hard stra- 
tum, would speeiUly become impoverished of water. No matter how severe the drought may be, the drift 
soil of the Northwest holds within itself an inexhaustible reservoir of moisture, to be brouglit to tiit> sur- 
face by evaporation or tapped by the roots of growing crops, which, in time of drouglit, strike ileeper in 
quest of water. 

Of the two other soils, the "bluff" deposit is the more remarkable, as well as the greater in extent. 
The bluffs along the Missouri River are formed of this soil, which is deposited in a vast layer over the 



SIOVX CITY ILLirSTUATKD. 

luore 04^)111111011 drift, t<» an average distance of twenty-five niileH »>n each side of the river antl t<i a maxi- 
miun ileptli i>f 2'K) feet As in the <lrift S4» in tlie "lihiff," tliere are no stratifie«l r<H"ks, and not even a 
liouhler. The hluff soil is, in fact, tiie sediment dropped in the uiarshes, niarkini^ tiie h>west level of a 
great lake, which wax, later, drained by the Miswiuri River agee liefore the country atitiuuied it« present 
physical asjiect. Thf hliitT soil, therefore, is even more fertile than the drift, into which, at it« outer 
edges, it grades iinperceptihly, liaving like it, also, |M»rfect underdrainage. 

The Inst division conij)rises the soils of the alluvial Hood plains of the river vnlley.--, nr, ii> iIk-v an- 
{Kijiularly called, "liottoni lamls." The iin|)ortance of these soils readily a|)|H<ars from tin' fact that North- 
western Iwwa is covered with an intricate network of rivers ami minor tributaries; and what is true of 
Northwestern It>wa in this respect, is also true of Southeastern Dakota and Northeastern Nebraska. 




A. H. IIAI.BV A SONS MACIIINR NHOrs. 



These soils are. us an eminent scientific authority puts it, "tiie most fertile in the stat«'," from the fact that 
they contain the washings of the other soils in addition to a large amount of ileeayed vegetable matter, 
derived through the agency of former floods from tin' luxuriant growth along the Ixmlers of tlie streams. 
Such are the three grand ilivisionsof marvelous soil the drift, the "bluff," and the alluvial all further 
enriched near the surface by a generous admixture of decayinl vegetable and animal matter, which renders 
Ni>rthwestern Iowa, and in kindred manner also adjacent iM)rtions of DakoUi and Nebraska, a region 
absolutely unrivaled in the whole United States for agricultural production. It yields all the great staple 
products- corn, wlieat, oats, rj-e, flax, grass, and r<K>t crops, etc. - in anunint and regularity of return 
nowhere else even a])prnached. (^>rn is King. Here, neither ex<'essive rainfall nor drought has ever, 
or can ever cause failure of crops, and the yiehl, whether in jMiint of luxuriance or of fineness of quality, 
kuowB no rival in the markets of the world. And this cream of the cream of the corn lands of the United 



SIOVX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



States is tlie very life of tlie cattle and hog interests, which, within the shtirt period since the beginning 
of cultivation in this region, have grown to such enormous proportions. Thrift and prosperity are the 
children of such abounding goodness of nature. Their many handled proofs are scattered in the 
improved farms, the multiplying villages, and towns, and cities, all the scenes of fruitful enterprise, and 




IOWA SAVINGS BANK. 



all the results of industry during comparatively only a few years. In the very heart of all, at the point of 
convergence of the drainage of all this region, as reference tti the map sliows, is Sioux City, not oidy the 
geographical, but also the undisputed cominorcial center, its arteries of trade radiating in every direction 
and following, of necessity, the natui'al water routes, and bound together by the very logic of the situation. 
The cause of the growth of Sioux City is no mystery. It has gi'own because it must grow— because of 



siorx cirv h.i.csthatkd. 

the niiituni rulntioiis 8ul)HiKtiiig l>otw«>en it hiuI the iimnoUous richness of the soils of its imme<Iiate 
ngrictiltural (Miviroiiinont; Ih'c'iiuso Corn is King, mid hocnuse liis capital ami tlir<>ii<> aro at Si.iux City. 




MliruoroI.lTAN IIUMK EliE<TKU AND DW.NEU IIV N. DKHrAKOIH. 

Jiiit t<i apiprt'c-inte the forces which arc imsliing Sioux City forward, the eye must glance beyond tlie 
spleudiil corn-field immetliately iircpiind aliuiit it. That, indeed, by itself, is sulhcient when fully 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

developed, to maintain a great city— a city many times even the Sioux City of tt)-day. For the twenty 
counties of Northwestern Iowa, which are within the assured range of Sioux City's trade, are less than 
one-third of the northwestern corn region, which includes as well the adjacent portions of Southeastern 
Dakota and Northeastern Nebraska, lying on both sides of the Missouri Kiver, westward of 
Sioux City. The northern edge of the corn belt is only a few tiers of counties north, and thence its 
boundary curves around Sioux City southwesterly in Dakota and Nebraska. This is the great body of the 
distinctively corn country, and although the boundary line is not regular, it is located at no great distance, 
relatively speaking, west and northwest fi-om Sioux City, except along river valleys, which, of course, 
extend it in narrow strips considerably beyond the general western limit. Sioux City, thus, is in the 




SIOUX CITY SAVINGS BANE, ( RICHARDSON BLOCK.) 



corner of the northwestern corn country, while the rich corn fields are carried indefinitely east and soutli 
across the State of Iowa. 

Beyond this limit to the west and nortli, corn, as the main crop, cannot be protitaljiy raised. Now, 
fix in the mind the vast stretches of prairie across Western Nebraska and Dakota, through the foot-hills of 
the Black Hills into the mountain country itself, and into the broken surfaces of Wyoming and Montana. 
Note that these vast ranges open upon the great northwestern angle of the corn country, in which Sioux 
City is located, the Missoiu'i Valley sweeping from the west and the northwest and di-aiiiing them before it 
receives at Sioux City the combined drainage of the corn country. Note, likewise, that Sioux City is not 
only the natural entrepot to the corn country from the range country, and therefore, conversely, to the 
latter from the former, but also that it is in the most direct line for transporting cattle from the ranges to 
eastern and ultimate markets; and, furthermore, that the lines of railroad transportation, taking 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

directimi from the iiHtural (Iniiiiage of the country, roiini^i't tin- rniif,'PK, (icross WoHttTii NtOtrnxka and 
Dakota, with Sioux City, and tlionee iii every <lirt*c-tion run through lis Kurrounding i-orn country, aH well 
as C(iuimunicating witli Chicago and the Eatst 

TlieHe vaKt duiuaiuH of range country are not a corn country; they are a grass country. Stwn after 
the war, tatth- in ininieuHe lunuherH l>egan to In- driven nortli from Tt'sas to the northwestern ranges, and 







J<iy .» MAItKS ItUMK. 



for twelve or fifteen years, so luxiiiiaiil wjis the natural growth of Imiicli !,'rass in Montana and Wyoming 
and the l)ufTalo grass of Western Dakota, that they could he fattened and made ready to go directly to 
market. The protits were fahulous. Cattle com|iani«>s, multiplying everywh(>re in this and foreign lands, 
covered tiie ranges with hundreds of thousands of cattle. The result was an over-stocking of the ranges. 
The grass was eaten otf. S(>ttlers, tix>, came in, cutting off free access to water courses. A revolution in 
range methods waa wrought The cattle could no longer be fattened on native grass. In that condition 
winter storms decimated them. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



The pressure of these ooiulitioiis befran to l)e severely felt as early as 1882, and it has increased with each 
succeeding year. Cattle could still he grown and their frames built on the ranges — grown and built there, 
indeed, more cheaply than elsewhere— but the profit was all in fat cattle. The inexorable logic of the 
situation, accordingly, was that tiie cattle must l)e moved from the ranges to be fattened: they must be 
transferred to where corn is grown. The corn was just at hand; it was to be found in the Corn Eegion, 

in the northwestern corner 
of which Sioux City is 
situated. This region was 
in the direct line of tran- 
sit to Chicago, so tliat cat- 
tle could 
b e taken 
from the 
ranges t o 
Sioux City, 
to be dis- 
tributed 
thence 
among the 




farmers of 
the c o r n 
country for 
fattening, 
and then 
re- shipped 
to Chicago. 

Beginning in 1882 the 
stream of cattle, flowing 
through Sioux City for 
distribution thence in 
smaller bunches for fatten- 
ing at the corn-cribs of the 
northwest, has raj)idly in- 

creased. It has now hotel, GAIUIETSDN — owned and OONDUOTEU HY D. a. WILLIAMS. 

swelled to enormous proportions. Not only so, but there is a counter current of young stock and stock cattle 
of all kinds, flowing out from the farms of the corn country, through Sioux City to the ranges, which are 
the gnvit lireeding country. The ranchmen have learned that, although the groat herd must go, they may by 
improved methods, in future breed anil raise in the aggregate even more cattle than in the ))ast. And so the 
stream of cattle from the ranges to the corn region, through Sioux City as a gateway, has grown larger 
each succeeding year since 1882, and in the nature of things must in future grow still larger, until the 
mutual possibilities of the two great sections are fulfilled. Butjjthesefare boundless— practically boundless. 



SlOrX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

The mnltii)licnti(>ii of transnctioiiH iiivolve<l in distrilmtiiifi cnttl»> tlinnifjli tli<* iii>rtliwpst*irn country, 
08 onrly n« 1^<M iiml IHH"), lind iniulf Simix City mi ini|Mirtant stock nwirket WIumi it was once finally 
C8tnl>lislit'«l that a larjj;!' |M>rti<)n of tl»« inuntMiKe liords of tin' raiij^i's must \w hmujilit to tliu corn rt'^;ion, 
another not loss vit<il fact was also thereby est^ihlishtnl, although it may not, at first, have Ijeen so 
generally and st) clearly perceivetl, t<»-wit: that the cattle must eventually lie slaughtereil at Hioux City. 
For, as is universally con<'Pcled now, as there was great profit in hringing the range cattle for distrilmtion 
through the corn country for fattt-ning, there is, for the same reason, still greater ecttnomy in slaught^-ring 
and dressing the heoves before Khip|)ing them on to Chicago, or t4i final market 

Moreover, the northwest was not only a vast corn fii-id, Imt it was an enormous hog-|)en. Being a 
cattle country Iwcause it was a corn country, it was, therefore, also a great hog country. The steer and the 




ItKSIDENC'K JAMIVS (1. Mll.l.KU. 

hog go together, and Itoth together form the close fitting halves of a machine for working up and condensing 
the raw material of the corn-tieKl. 

Move<l tlieret4i hy the multiplying transactions in cattle and hogs, leading men in Sioux City 
in 18H4 organized the Union Stock Yards Com|)any. which is properly einimi'rated above as one of the 
imjwrtant instruments of tiie growtli of the city. Tiie facilities tiius atV.uded were the first f(»rmal 
outreachings towards making Sioux City the dominant market city which it now is; and in their 
immediate vicinity, and operating in liarnioiiy thcuwitii. are the great packing establishmeuts since 
located here. 

Sioux City, imleed, had iiad for many years an important |)ackiug interest, one ext<Misive ]>acking 
house; but, although highly im|M)rtant to Sioux City, this did not make the town a packing center, a 
recognized and dominant stock market in the whole territory of its trade. This was the situation in the 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 




THE HOBNICK DRUO CO. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

early juirt «>f 18^f7, whoii thert' ofi'iirrcil tlii< Ki'oiiiiii(j;l_v siulileii iniivi>miMit <>f tin* •{rt-iit C'liioaj^o piu-kerb of 
lM>ef Hiul |M>rk to Sioux City, hikI to the estJililiHliiueut li«>re of pHckiiig hoUHes, which have l>eyoud perad- 
veiiture Butth-il it that Sioux City iw, and is to reiuuiii, the fit4Kk iimrket and packing center of the 
NurthweHt; and this liau Iteen contiriu(>d liy tlie actual constructiun, within lesH than a year, of the imnieuHe 
packing Iioukoh of Siilicrhorn and of Fowler, of Chicago, recognized the world over as kings of the meat 
int4'rt'st. Anil in addition to the great H<H)ge packing liouso previously long cstaMishcd, there is 
virtual cerUiinty of construction here also of a uianinioth dres8e<l lM<ef esUihlishnient by Swift of Chicago. 
But, to say nothing of what is t<i he a<lded inuncnliately, the packing houses already in actual o|>eratittn, 
having capacity for Ll.OlHJ hogs and '2,(XH) cattle daily, constitnt*' a vast meat industry, and have raised 
Sioux City, at ont' stroki', to the front rank as a hog ami cattle inarki-t'in the rnit4'<l .Stnt<'s. And liy this 




llKalUE^•CE C. F. UOiT. 



capital achievement there is involved for Sioux City a great system of collateral nnmufactures, such as 
glui'-works, tanning, soap-works, f«'rti!i/,ing works, tinneries, c<Hiper-works, etc., etc., which arc, indi-cd, 
already heing su|>plie<l, atl'onling, witii the packing houses, employment for thousands of workingmen and 
in manifold ways huilding up and ext<'nding the couimerce and industry of the city. 

It should not lie forgottt'ii, however, that other causes were at work to |iroduce this grand result — 
causes of far-reaciiing force, and kindred t«i the fundamental movements which have marked Sioux City as 
the capital of a great I'uipire of trade and pnxluction in tiie Northwest. During the years following ISSO, 
the fertility of the soil of the Sioux City corn region, as well as tiie tin(> farming ci>iintry alxiut it, ami tlie 
atlaptaliility of the ranges further west to stock-raising in connection with the corn country- all these and 
similar facts were becoming better known t<> the world. Immigration, having previously been t<imjM»rarily 
diverteil to other jiortions of the West by the seductions of land-grant cor|>»)rationB, then liegau to pour into 



SIOVX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

the riclier lands of the Upper Missoxiri Valley. The Northwest was becoming by inherent strength an 
independent trade empire. The obstacle of sheer distance was protection for Sioux City against the 
monopolizing power of Chicago, which overshadowed the less fortunate cities along the Mississippi 
valley south of Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

The salient fact of the independent force of the Upper Missouri Valley was recognized by the 
great railroad corporations which pierced the northwest from Chicago, and which had been disposed 
by self-interest, or supposed self-interest, to be the instruments of the trade monopoly of Chicago and by 




THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHtTRCH. 



discriminating rates io girdle the gnnvth of minor western trade centers. It was upon this enforci»d 
change of policy on the part of the corporations, about 1886, toward Miss<jnri river market cities, Kansas 
City, Omaha and Sioux City, that the movement of tlie Chicago packers thereto was predicated 

If there were space, it would be interesting to pause liere and consider in detail the building of 
railroads in the Upper Missouri Valley and their centralization at Sioux City. The extraordinary 
and absolutely unparalleled development of this vast region, with whose growth and destiny the gn.wtli 
of Sioux City is indissolubly bound up, Ims been conditioned upon the building of railroads, as well as 
upon the marvelous richness of its soil; for by the former the fruits of the latter are made available, and 
the rapid tendency to lower rates of transportation, especially during the past ten years, has had the 



SlOl'X CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

f^ffect U) briiig tlie cbenp ricli landH of the iiorthweHt prncticHlly oh near the seaboartl iiuirkpts tin th)> 
high-priced aud exhausteil landu of the east 

If tlie roader will refer to aii accurate map of that i>ortioii of the UpiM>r Missouri Valley, coiii- 
prisiiig N<>rth\vt>st«'rii Iowa, South wt'stt-rii Miniiesnta, Northern Nehrnska, 8<iuth<<rii Dakota, and the 
fast»'rn |)orti<ins of Wyoniiug and Montana, he will observe the centralization of the railmad comiuunii-a- 
tions at Sioux City. Such centralization is the logical aud necessary result of the convergence precisely 
at Sioux City of the natural drainage of this region, to which reference ha» already been made. The 
lines of railroad, following of necessity the river valleys, converged uj>on Sioux City, and from it reache<J 
the great empire immediately westward and northwestward along the I'jipcr Missouri Valley. 

Thus Siou.x City is the point of convergence of five great railroad systems, viz: the Illinois Central, 
the Chicago A Northwestern, the Chicago, Milwaukee <t St. Paul, tlie Chicago. St. Paul, Miniiea|ioliB 




iV Omaha, and, including the Sioux City iV Northern, i>n wiiich construction is just beginning, the 
"Manitoba" system. The Sioux City it Pacific, the first road to reach Sioux (Uty in 18(!8, is now a part 
nf the Chitwigo cV Northwestern system. The process of centralization of the railroad communicatious of 
tiie northwest not only liHS made Sioux City the converging point of the main lines of these fivi> great 
systems, but has brought hither, as any railroad map shows, thirteen brunch lines, nearly all located 
according to the convenience of the grades of river valleys aud their tributaries. 

Sioux City is the western terminus of the Illinois Central, which last year acquired ownership of 
the lines running eastward across Iowa, long operated by it umler lease, while two new branch lines 
have been built within the year, the one northwest into Dakota, and the other southwest, opening up to 
the trade of .Sioux City a large new territory. Two great railroad systems, the Chicago, Milwaukee iV 
St Paul, and the Chicago &. Northwestern have reached out giant arms from Sioux City westwanUy and 
northwestwardly across Southern Dakota, spider-webbing that immense territory in every direction « itii 
feeders. These systems, with present Dakota termini on the Missouri river, but preparing and ready to 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

push on into and across the great Sioux Indian Keservation, are the handmaids of the trade of Sioux 
City therein, making it as well the market of this empire as its depot of supply. 




THE SIOUX ^CITY HIGH S0HOOI>. 

Not less intimately is Northern Nebraska, lying dir.K'tly west of Sioux City oji tl.e opposite shore of 
the Missouri River, bound up in commercial interest with Sioux City. The main line of the Chicago, 
St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha reaches Sioux City by the valley of the Floyd river, which joins the 



S/orX CITY ll.l.VSTHATED. 

Missouri witliiii tho corj^rnU* limits i>f tho city, iiml from tho opjxtBiU' sluire pioriu>8 N<>rtli«rn Ni'liraxka 
with tliri'o Hues. IViuling cmnpletion of thf railroad hriilpp across tlio rivi-r. coiinoctioii hetwcen tlio two 
shorf's is ofroct<'<l, as it lias Ikwii for many yoars, l>y a t<>in|«>rary hridye (hiring tliu winter season ami by 
Hteariil>oat transfer (luring the summer. The machine shops of this company are located here as are 
thc«e also of the Chicago, Milwaukee A SL Paul. 

Puring tlie ]>aKt few years the Chicago A- Northwest<frn, having covertnl Southern Daknta, has nmde 
an e«iually ImiKI movement across Northern Nel)raska. Crossing the Missouri Kiver by a bridge .seventy- 
five miles below Sioux City, and acijuiring tho Fremont, Elkhorn <fc Missouri Valley lino, tho great 
Chicago iV Northwestern has not only coveretl Northeastern Nebraska up to tho shore op|M>site Sioux 
City, but also Ixddly pushed it« main line wostwardly along the line of the Niobrara into the Black Hills 




m..-<ii>K.s(K T. J. HWt^t: 



and into the regions beyond. This bold extension lias tajiped, from the south, at once tlie great cattle 
country and the resourceful mineral districts of the Black Hills. 

Such was the situation at the beginning of 1886, and during that year the im|M)rtance of Sioux City 
was recognized by the great railroad corporations by building to it numerous connecting lines necessary to 
their systtnus. At the close of 1S8(J, the great desideratum, the one missing link which the expanding 
iK'cessities of the situation could no longer leave unsup|)lied, was a railroad bridge across the Missouri 
River. The time was ripe, and in the early spring of 1887, the Chicago «fe Northwtistern and the Chicago, 
St Paul, Minneaixilis iV Omaha Companies made stipulations for spanning the river with the splendid 
stnicturi" now nearing completion, using tiierefor th<< charter secured by Sioux City yi>ars before. With 
the bridge, the railroad problem, in its jKjtency has been finally solvinl, and the last barrier to the com- 
plete commercial supremacy of Sioux City in Northern Nebraska has been overlea|)ed and forever 
removed. 



smrw CITY I IJ.rsTRATF.D. 

Such a Kysteiii of I'aihoads, radiatiug from Sioux City tlu'ougli a maguificent territory in the north- 
west, one hunih-ed and fifty miles nortii and south and over six hundred miles east and west, including 
Northern Nebraska and Southern Dakota, from Sioux City to the Black Hills, in addition to the whole 
northwestern quarter of tlie State of Iowa such a system involves exclusive transportation facilities for 
Sioux City, which compel it to be a great trade center. Sioux City, indeed, from its foundation has been 
a jobbing center. Before a railroad had been built into the northwest, or had even reached Sioux City, 




lidoM lillil'.i 



the depot of supplies to such settlements as liad then been made further west and to the government 
stations and trading posts was estalilished here, the means of transportation being the steamboat and 
the freighter's wagon. 

The substitution of the railroad for the older methods of transportation in the northwest, the 
remarkable movement of railroad construction during recent years to cover the specific region of Sioux 
City's environment, has simply atl'orded means for the more ra])id development of its jobl)ing trade. 
Description of the .iiibl>ing interests of Sioux City need not go into detail; tliey are the logical counterpart 
of the gi'eat system of railroads which is their instrument and servant. The jobbing interests represent 



SrOVX CITY II.LVSTRATKD. 

all the lea<ling lines of supply aiul respoml to the necessities of the pef)ple of the great territory in the 
northwest roat-hod fmni Kimix City. Tlie outH and illuHtrations ^^iven in these i)ape8 fairly repreKent some 
uf the leadinij johhini^ Ikiusch, and from theiu, aM well n» froiii tht- Hugj^eHtionts of the relation of Sioux 
City t<> the Upi)er Misstturi Valley, may l>e inferretl the strength of the johhiug business lietter than 
from ri'lii-arsul of figuren and dry HtatisticH. 

HapitI as has been tiie growtii of the jobbing int«rest during the past five years, it has ))een a 
conntaiit strug>;!»' for the Sioux ("ity jobl)Hrs to keep pace with the demands of the tributary territory, to 
increase tlieir >'aj)it4il and other facilities to corres|Mind with its development. Everj' one of the tens of 
thousands of settlers who have annually for ten years last past gone into this territ4>ry, every town and 




II v .1 ^^I'I 



village which has sprung up therein, every mile of railroad built, as tlie marcli of development has been 
moving 8t«p by step westward— each and all these things have been drafts up<)n the resources of Hioui 
('ity as the jobbing center of this territory. .Vinl if there be adeijuate conc^eption of the tremendous 
development of the llpper Missouri \iilley during this i)eri<Hl, it will be underst<Kxl why the jobbing 
interest of Sioux City has grown so rapidly, and why. notwithstanding tlit> profits thereof have be<>n 
re-invested from year to year, and new houses addeii and all facilities constantly enlarged, the jobbers of 
Sioux City are to-day taxed to the extreme limit of their re8t)urcea to meet the demands uixm them. 

The |)os8il)ilities of Sioux City for trade are forcibly suggested by the fact that of the empire alviut 
it. which has already made of it a jobbing center, less than "!'■) per cent is as yet occupied and deveIoi)ed. 
And into this territory immigration is i)ouring a constantly rising stream. The new settlers represent the 
most enteri)rising, intelligent and prosperous elements of the States north of the Ohio River, from which, 
mainly, they come. And the process of development upon the surpassingly rich bottom lands and 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

prairies of the Upper Missouri Valley, in this day of railroads and improved agricultural agencies, is 
incomparably more rapid than it was in the pioneer days of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, when the settler 
must literally hew his way into the wilderness and fight the long hard battle in absolute isolation. 

When population in the Upper Missouri Valley shall double, treble anil quadruple, as it infallibly 
will during the next decade, it is apparent that the ti'ade of Sioux City therein will more than d(nil)le, 
treble and quadruple, just as daring the past decade there has been such notable expansion of tlie 
facilities of supply here in exact correspondence with the increasing demands of the tributary territory. 
For absolute certainty has now taken the place of uncertainty; the lines of communication have now 
become finally fixed; a great jobbing interest has been firmly established and built up; nothing remains 




WHOLESAI.E I'ln 



but steady, logical and assureil growth upon the broad foundation already laid and toward the destiny 
which the obvious conditiims of the situation have marked out. 

Taking under one sweep of the eye the magnificent territory of the Upper Missouri Valley, opening 
about and above Sioux City, consider now that it is in the most direct natural route from Chicago and the 
lake region to the Pacific. At least two of Sioux City's great railroad systems are not only tapi)ing in every 
direction and bearing to it the wealth of a great empire in the northwest, but are rapidly reaching west- 
ward for transcontinental connections. The certainty of the near future must be the counter extension of 
the Central Pacific eastward, and the logic of the conditions compels such extension by way of Sioux City ; 
while, on the other hand, the " Manitoba " system is reaching from a port on Lake Superior, independent 
of Chicago, a hand already almost to Sioux City, and a tax already voted, and construction just ready to 
begin, will during the present summer clasp this extended liauil. 



SWVX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

Sufli are uuly a few of the hroad iniiicntionR, only h few of the accoiupliRheil facti«, of the situation 
of the Sioux City of To-dny. KlnlxtrHtioii of dettiil could hardly emphasize its manifest destiny — ooulii 
not more dearly reveal it« fixed relation of market and supply I'ity to tlie I'pjM'r Missouri \' alley. 



In the. fDifj^oini^ l)ri('f and inipcrfiH't survey it lias lieen the pur|>ose to j)rosent, in thi-ir hnxid phases, 
the distint'tive relations of Sioux City and its tributary territory, rather than to enlarge descriptively on 
the numerous features in detail wjiic-h, as a rule, are i-omnum to all towns and cities of equal size; it has 
likewise l)een the puriM)se to »U\ie, without wdoring or exaggeration, the facts as they actually exist, and 
in all cases \vIiim'(> there was diiui)t in re^'aril to estiniatt's, t^i lean to the conservative side, so thitt all wiio 
may !«• iritiirstcil tn nuiki- fiiitlnT inquiry into the specific facts of the actual status and common 




IIKSIIiKNCE K.l>. IIWKINSON 



destiny of Sioux t'ity and the Tppcr Missouri N'allcv, will tind that the splemlid tnitli, fur frum lieing 
fully told, has only been partially suggested in these pages. 

One thing more niu.><t be referred t^i, viz.: the agency of Sioux City itself in realizing upon tin* natural 
advantages of its position as already outlined. Siiuix City has not waited in the first instance for the 
outside world to se»' the inherent relations subsisting between it and the I'pper Missouri \ alley. Had 
the men of Sioux City pursueil a passive |)olicy, relying solely un the natural advantages of the situation, 
obvious and commanding though they are, to ImiM a city here, the transition from a frontier post 
to a dominant trade center must have been far less ra])id, to say the least, and there might imssibly have 
been ilivisioii nf the iimj^'iiitici'iit tiTi'iti iry. imw assuii'cj to it furever, to otin-r trade ciMitcrs within the 



same. 



But the men of Sioux City, froni the very first, have been instant in all the great enterprises, public and 
private, which in their cond)ined result have now established its commercial i)rimacy in the Upper Missouri 
Valley according to the natural indications of the same. Throughout the entire series of achievements 
tending to this I'lnj Sioux City itself has taken the initiative, and, acting on the faith which it had in it«elf, 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

has established itself iu the faith of the world, thereby bringing in the co-operation of the capital and 
enterprise of the east, and enlisting the aid of the great railroad corporations and other concerns which 
liave done so much for Sioux City. 

There is not, and never has been, division of counsel, faction or jealousy in Sioux City, but iu the 
presence of opportunity for public enterprise all citizens of all classes have fused in enthusiastic harmony, 
whether the proposition was a tax in aid of a railroad, to build a bridge, to insure machine shops, or any 
other important work. It is this public-spirited harmony, under the direction of the far-seeing and 
intrepid leadership of a few prominent citizens— men who have themselves voluntarily a.ssumed great 
burdens and ri.sks in the common cause — it is thus that Sioux City may be said at least to have accelerated 
the destiny which its natural relation to the Upper Missouri Valley marked out for it. By such in- 




HAAXINSON BLOCK. 



dependent endeavor nearly every trunk line of railroad, and most of the branch lines, now converging 
here were secured; thus the opera house; thus the great hotel; thus the first of the machine shops; thus 
many of the important commercial and manufacturing interests. But the most notable fruits of this 
policy have been within the period of eighteen months, last past, during which were secured those capital 
achievements, the railroad bridge across the Missouri, the great packing establishments, three new branch 
lines of railroad and assurance of a new trunk line, as well as the wonderful Corn Palace. 

And the same spirit of public enterprise, strengthened and emboldened l)y the results of the past, 
and engaged with the greater enterprises now in hand and in immediate prospect, is to-day, next to tlie 
natural advantages of its position, the most notable feature of the situation of Sioux City. Anil thus lias 
come to pass the confidence which Sioux City has in itself, and which tlie world has now come to have in it, 
so that tliere is nothing within the splendid possibilities of the Upper Missouri Valley which it cannot 
accomplish. 



THE GOHD PALAG0. 



Till-: \i:\y »i>\i>i.k <»r tiii: wnm.n. 



" In the lunJ of the Ojibways. 
lu th« plwuiaiit liiiid luul ix^ar^ful, 
SinK the mysteriee <j( Muntlumiii, 
Sinif the blewiiui^ nf the oorn-flelilB." 



lAtny/illmr. 




; i.iJl !;..!.:; l.l-.l i-'l..'.'. U JA^. A. J .i. l-.-.i ■.%, .Mt.'l.MNli HIDE.)' 

The Sioux City Corn Palace was umiuestioiiahly tlio most l)eaiitiful iiml iiovt^l, as well as the most 
appropriate?, edifice ever erecteil in, this country for the exclusive purpose of displaying agricultural 
proilucts. It was unique. Nothing of the kind was ever before seen. President Clevelan<l declared: 
"This is the first new thing that has been shown me." Mr. Chauncey M. Depew said: " I have been all 
over the world, nearly, but I never before saw a Corn Palace." Travelers, whi>se eyes had rested ujHin the 
famous works of mankind iti all |M)rtions of the globe, oxpresseil the greatest admiration for this creation 
of western genius wrought from the products of western soil. It was an artistic triuni|)li, marking the 
beginning of a new era in exiKJsitious of its class, an absolutely new idea the appropriateness of which 
evoked not only the enthusiasm of the pe<iple of Sioux City and the Upper Missouri Valley, the fruits of 
whose toil and the felicity of whose fortune it so vividly typified, but also the interest of the people of all 
sections of the country. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

This record of the great event is prepared that those persons who did not see the Corn Palace of 
1887 may, from reading an impartial narrative of the incidents of the Festival and a description of the 
building, form an estimate of the character and interest of the occasion; and, more than this, gain some 
idea of the industrial and productive forces of the richly dowered region of which the Sioux City Corn 
Palace, as well as Sioux City itself, is so striking a suggestion. 

The idea of constructing a Corn Palace was original with Sioux City. The carrying out of that 
idea, to a degi'ee far beyond the anticipations of its originators and to the eminent satisfaction of the 
one hundred and forty thousand visitors who beheld its consummation, was the work of Sioux City men. 
A Sioux City architect designed the plan and Sioux City artisans executed it. Sioux City women adorned 
the interior of the structure. Therefore it may be reasonably claimed that, as St. Paul has its Ice Palace, 
St. Louis its Veiled Prophets, and New Orleans its Mardi Gras, so the metropolis of the Upper Missouri 
region has the sole right to the Corn Palace. And thus, liaving presented something new under the sun, the 




ST. CROIX LUMBER CO. 



triumphant materialization of an original thought, Sioux City may with propriety proclaim itself to be 
the " Corn Palace City of the World." 

While the completed Corn Palace embodied an original idea of satisfying and comprehensive 
significance, it is not to be understood that there was at the start definite and complete consciousness of 
the idea. It rather grew with the making of the Corn Palace. Tlie decorative possibilities of the corn 
plant and of the other products of the Sioux City corn-field, far from being understood at the outset, 
were not even dreamed of. But the people of Sioux City, with the remarkable growth of their city as 
the prominent fact in mind, had the keenest appreciation of the productive energies of the soil of the 
northwestern empire about them. The fundamental fact, upon which rested the pros])erity of Sioux 
City, its gi'eat and suddenly developing packing interests, the concentration here of the business exchanges, 
the trade and the communications of the Upper Missouri Valley, was the prosperity of this region as an 
agricultural region, and the mainstay of the latter was Corn — King Corn. Some account of the fertility 
of this region, and of the mutual relations subsisting between it and Sioux City as its geographical and 
commercial center, has been given in a former chapter of this work, and that account will suggest to the 
reader how impossible it is to understand the significance of those relations, to say nothing of experiencing 



SlOrX CITY H.l.rSTRATKP. 

it in (>racticRl dt^aliii^s, without Immii^^ imprPHHod with tlic> majeHty of tlic kiii({ uf orops in the nortliwoKt 
And tliiK WRK thf l)H8iH nn whicli tli« Corn I'ahu'e uf 1KS7 whs Imilt at Sioux City nu i»iit«'rpris6 t4> which 
the int«'rt>st, i-ntliUHiaxni and pridt' not only of Sioiix City, hut an well of the thu\ipamls on the farms and 
in the viUHf^es and towns of the C-orn Region of the northwest, who shared in its prosperity, res|Mindi'd 
with H common impulse. Tlif working out of the detnilu of the Corn Palaee itself, the discovery of the 
artiHtie |K>s8il)ilitieH of the e(jrn plant, and the sudden inspiration which was iNirn of such discovery, were 
things whicli cam)> later came in the work of Imilding. As Aphrodite sprang from the iH-ean's foam, s«>, 

when the elTort was once hegun to re|)resent the lieneticen f the ty|)ical priHiuct of the nortliwest4<rn 

field, dawned the realization of its artistii" resources. 














^ %t 













'^ 



^ 










^^i'r 



\n aliundant harvest was ripening in this royal doiiiuin when sonu! one in Sioux City suggested the 
idea of the holding of a Harvest Festival and Corn .luhilee in honor and re<'ognition of the iMiunteous 
gift. That hint, vague and undefined though it was, snfiiced to stir the spirit of enterprise in Sioux City 
breasts. It was the virile germ of a grand e\ent. Then followed a more ihliliirate mid practical 
consideration of the scheme. 

\ c<mimittee of Sioux City Im.siness men was designated to take the mutter in charge anil effect 
an oi>erative organization. When a conimittee is apiiointed in Sioux City, it may he rennirked, a foregone 
conclusion is that something is going to he done. Such an a|)pointment, even hy an informal hody like 
the early Festival meetings, is not a mere honorary <listinction, to he treated lightly or ignored altogether 
hy the appointee. It is a husiness transaction, and I'xact duty is reipiired of all. This fact is alluded to 
as a iharacteristic of Si(Mix City. 

-Another distinguishing trait of the citi/ens of Sioux City is the merging of the individual into the 
municipal whole \\\\v\\ creilit or j)rofit is acicud.Ml l.y the public. In the present instance, the distinction 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



of originating the Corn Palace is accorded to "the people." In fact, this concession is not ill-advised, be- 
cause no plan was adopted and rigidly adhered to, either in the construction of the Palace or the entertain- 
ment of visitors. Hiindreds of willing workers contributed gratuitously to the adornment of Palace and 
city, insuring success. The personal element — individual aggrandizement and commercial advertisement — 
was excluded from the building. The Festival was conducted, within the Palace, solely for the enhancement 
of agricultural interests throughout tlie northwest, and in the street-parades strictly to display evidences 
of the progress of Sioux City in commercial lines, because of the agricultural development of the region. 



The opportu- 
i.ity for a noble 
etiort and the men 
capable of noble 
performance came 
face to fac e — a 
country weighted 
with ripening 
grain; a city filled 
with alert intel- 
ligence and execu- 
tive force. A com- 
bination of such 
circumstantial 
power is invincible 
as fate. 

Among the 
first yjropositions 
regarding decora- 
tions was one that 
the W o o d b u r y 
County court- 
house be trimmed 
with corn and used 
as a hall; another 
suggestion was to 
heap great piles of 
corn along the 
streets; and finally 
some one s u g- 
gested that a "Corn 




W. E. HIOMAN .1 CXI.. \\ IKII^F.SALE H( )( i 1^ \M' 



Palace" be erected. 
A n architect 
submitted a plan 
for a special build- 
ing, 60 by 60 feet 
in size, closely re- 
sembling the main 
structure as sub- 
sequently erected. 
This design was 
discussed and 
amended so as to 
contemplate the 
construction of a 
palace 100 by 100 
feet in ground 
dimensions. Draw- 
ings were made in 
detail by the archi- 
t e c t and unani- 
mously adopted. 
Committees on 
finance and pro- 
gramme, consist- 
ing of leading citi- 
zens, were appoint- 
ed, and tlie con- 
tract was awarileil 
f o r constructing 
the frame of the 
buihling. Later, 



as the magnitude and significance of the euterpi'ise were perceived, the iSioux City Corn Palace Associa- 
tiou was formed, and the work sub-divided among a number of committees. 

Vacant lots on the northwest corner of Fifth and Jackson streets were selected as the site of the 
Palace. Here was a clear frontage of 100 feet on Fifth street. Immediately to the west was a high 
one-story wooden building, 50 feet on Fifth street by 150 feet deep, which was designed for a roller- 
skating rink and contained a smooth, solid floor. 

Work was at once begun. A crude but strong frame was set up and sheeted with rough lumber. At 
the center rose a well-proportioned square tqjver, 100 feet in height, with massive cupola having arched 
windows, and corner minarets, and terminating in a four-sided pinnacle and flag- staff. At each of the 



aiOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

comere of the bailding was a nquare tower, 20 by 20 feet in size, with lofty four-sided apex roof and 
minnret«. Midway i>f the Fiftli street and .Tiicksun street fronts were stpiare towers, with flat nnifs and 
niiiiHretw. Sprini^inj; from the inmost corners of the exterior towers to the outward corners of the 
main tower, on a line with the base of the ajwx of each, were light festoons, or, to use the architectural 
term, flying buttresses, which impiirteil an effect of luassiveness to the edifice. The nxif-lines were 
linrnioniously irregular, sweej)iug from the central tower to the exterior as the several front elevations 
re(juired. This broken outline was intentional, iji onler that a maximum of surface might Vie presented 
for decoration. The a))ertures in the towers were spacious, generally of an arche<l style along the ui)per 
courses and the main entrances, but angular in the ground-course of the comer towers. This purjwse 
was also to give variety of outline, for the better display of decorative materials. Thus, while the 




l.l->il'i..N* L 



structure was of a composite and an original architectural order, tlie plan was admirably adajited to the 
uses for which it was designed. 

As work upon the Corn Palace progressed, the managers became more and more conscious of the 
possibilities in decoration. They did not at first conceive that it would be an affair of extraordinary 
magnitude nor an object of surpassing beauty. Probably the projectors had given but little or no thought 
to the artistic pliase of the subject wlion that additional |)ledge of success sto<Mi revealed by accident 
before tlieni. Tiie originators' minds were lM>nt upon the practical consideration of the value of corn as 
a staple an<l nf hogs as a profitable medium of trade. Their idea was to impress the public with 
indisi>utal)le evidence of the i)roductivene8s of this region. But the people asserted such an interest in 
tlie celeliration, each individual suggesting an im])rovenient or an elaboration of the plan, that the palace 
and the festival at large soon pa.s.sed beyond tiie original plans and became everylK>dy's work. The citizens 
went corn crazy. The city itself was inundated in a fliM>d ofc corn. And so the tleveloi>meut of the Corn 
Palace, from an arch across a street or a few meager decorations on some building already standing, to 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



the magnificent temple in which Ceres might have felt honored to abide, was the natural outgrowth of 
favorable circumstances, not a deliberately preconceived idea strictly adhered to. Like the corn, it 
sprang from'an insignificant germ to thrive and bloom and mature under the fervid heat of congenial 




PEAVET * STEPHENS, WnOLESAIiE AND RETAFL FURXITUKE. 



conditions. It was a popular work, and therefore proved, from very spontaneity, its power to reach the 
hearts of its beholders. It was the personification of Art in Nature. The humblest blade of grass was 
given a value; the homeliest form was made to bear its share in bringing something to the lighi Thus, 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

the practical put on the garb of the Ijeautiful and the commercial project of a Com Festival culminated 
in a feast of the Esthetic. 

The frame work was scarcely completed l>ofore the inadequacy of space was realizetL To meet this 
uiicxpf'cted roipiirenient, tljt- skatint;-rink iilreudy refcrreil t4> was made an annex, and within a day or two 
frnni that tinie, n second addition, extending westward from the rink tu the Baptist Church, and '20 feet 
in depth, was decided ujkhi. This arrangement gave nearly double the space for exhibits originally 
])lanne<l for, besides placing a spacious and solidly-flotired room at the disposal of tlM' management. 



■*^ 











Ml 




)t>i*»'»« > 



.-V_ '' 




(I II I (Jill 



iroTEL IKKMiE, il. L. CIIENKY, ritopiiihrroK. 



Th<» C(»rn Palace was, therefore, about 210 feet in length along Fiftii street, by 100 feet on Jackson 
street, but the unequal depth of the rink and the annex gave the entire structure an average depth of 
89 feet, or 18,700 square feet of floor surface. 

Before undertaking a description of the decorations, without which the Palace would have been an 
ungainly pile of rough materials, an idea of the magnitude of the labor and wealth expended thereon is 
imparted by giving some of the builder's estimates. There were H(M),000 feet of lumber consumed; 
l."),0(MI bushels of yellow corn and 5,000 bushels of variegate<l varieties; oOO pounds of carpet tacks; 
3,000 pounds of nails; 1,500 pounds of small bratls; 2,500 feet of rojie; 500 pounds of small wire, and 
3,500 yards of cloth. It took forty-six men six days to erect the palace, and nearly 300 men and women 
to place the decorations in form. Ten teams were employed fifteen days hauling the com and grains. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



Two steam saws were engaged constantly eight days cutting corn-ears into small pieces for decorative 
signs and ornamental work. Besides this labor is all that was done by farmers in delivering grains from 
their own stocks. The total cost of the Palace, not including a vast amount of labor and materials 
gratuitously contributed, was about $28,000. 

The exterior of the Corn Palace was entirely covered with corn and grains, in sheaf, stalk and ear. 
The many-angled roof, fi'om the topmost point of the central tower — itself a sheaf of wheat — was 
thatched with grain; mainly with stalks on which the ripened ears were exposed. The festoons from 
central to outlying 
towers were di aped 
with grains in the 
straw. The pei pen- 
dicular surfaces ot 
the tower and the 
other elevated sec- 
tions were laid thick- 
ly with stalks de- 
nuded of blades and 




ears, with yellow and 
red ears of corn 
nailed firmly intt) 
fanciful patterns, and 
with clusters of sor- 
ghum-cane. High up 
on the tower, facing 
south and east, were 
huge signs bearing 
the words "CORN 

PALACE," wrought from transverse sections of corn-ears. The windows in all the towers were latticed 
with ears strung on wires. Some of those ears were red, others yellow, and still others white, giving 
that variety of coloring which was at once the charm and the novelty of the general effect. 

The upright surfaces of the Fifth street and Jackson street fronts were sheathed with ears, laid on in 
square blocks, alternating perpendicular and horizontal, of ditferent colors, producing a suggestion of mosaic. 
The windows and entrances, as well as the open spaces on the ground line of corner towers, were formed with 
ears, in patterns conforming to the style of the aperture. The minarets were capped with bundles of grain 
and covered with stalks. As there were seventy of these, the airiness of the effect can easily be imagined. 



OFFICE AJJD PARLOR, HOTEL BOOGE. 



SIOVX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

The front of the rink, or "Armony HalJ," was encrusted with trimmed stalks and ears, and bore the 
legend, "Welcome to the First Corn Palace," worked in sections of ears, and the business office 
signs, across its ample surface. 

The unlimited use of those pieces of corn-ears in and about the palace, as well as in the private 
dec<:)ration8 of the city, calls for an explanation of wliiit they were and how they were appliecL S<jund 
ears were sawed into sections of one and two inches in length, leaving a fringe of kernels. These pieces 
could then be fastenetl uix>n a sign-lward or on any flat surface by a small nail driven through the pith. 
When different colors were combined, a very gorgeous style of block-letter was pnxluced. Singly they 
looked like bright rosettes. 




RESIOKNCB H. A. LTON. 



AlKjve the main entrance on Fifth Htreet was a Inrfje i>il paiiitint^ represpntint; a harvest scene in the 
olden times. Over the entrance to the west annex was a inannmitli National flag, worketl in red, white 
and blue ears of corn. The large openings on the street were partly or wholly covered with white cloth 
upon which were painted typical scenes — " The Indian's Lament," cattle, hogs, etc. 

Viewed from a distance of a block or two, the trifling irregularities of detail in decoration were 
softened and a niagiiifieont sliow of color was presented to the eye. The ])revailing .shades were yellow; 
the huge structure assuming from day to day, as the sun and wind ripened tlie stalk.s, a more golden 
hue. The red, white and deep yellow of the corn, the brown of the sorghum and the dead green of the 
com blades relieved the exterior of a monotony which might ordinarily have been expected, while the 
varying heiglits of the salient outlines added n charm of perspective, with high-lights and shadows, that 
combined to protluce an admirable architectural effect. 



aiOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

The managers of the enterprise were no sooner brought face to face with the task of making the 
interior decorations of the place comport with the exterior than they were ready to admit their need of 
finer taste. The possibilities were appalling to contemplate. Time was pressing and the enormous 
amount of work yet to do in the space of one week was enough to create a feeling of despair. A Board 
of Control was appointed. An earnest invitation was issued to the women of Sioux City to lend their 
assistance to determine what should be done. 




TOUNQ MBN's OHBISTIAN ASSOCIATION BtnXiDING. 

Enthusiastic response greeted this appeal. A committee on decorations was formed, the interior of the 
main building was divided into twelve sections, and the willing workers apj)ortioned to their several duties. 

Sioux City is proud to admit that the success of the distinguished and original effort is due, in its 
artistic phase, to the women of Sioux City. At the beginning there were no models to work from and no 
coherent idea of what could be done. From bare walls, unsightly posts and a vaulting dome of ugliness 
was created a liower of beauty never before equalled; and yet this marvel was worked without the aid 
of those adjuncts of decorative art which have heretofore been deemed essential to the plans of skilled 
artisans. There was no gaud, no tinsel, no laying on of precious metals, no use of costly pigments. An 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

ear of com, a handful of grasses, a bunch of weeds, a wlurfp of straw— those were the materials employed. 
But women's deft fingprs, mnved liy the genius, the bouI, of Art, tran8forme<l such simple objects into 
rare and radiant lovelinenB. 

The interior of the palace was a realm f)f enchantment Under tiie white glare of twenty-seven 
electric lights, it was a vision of fairyland. The cxtmmonplace even was Uiuche<i with magic wand and 
assnmetl the guise of the beautiful. Tiie thousands of visiti^irs wiio thri>nge<l through the |>»irtal8 on the 
opening night were hushed into amazed delight at the unexpocte«l revelntinn Wfore them. There was no 
jostling, no hurry, no confusion. The atmosphere of the place affected all alike. 










m,•~.—-^^■^'''.''■^&"^^^■ ■ " 






«z:z 







RESIDENCE L. S. FAWCETT. 



The strong, the delicate; tiio rugged, the graceful: tlie utilities, the harmonies; the matter-of-fact, 
the ethereal; all the elements in Nature's pnxiuctive laboratory were here side by side, contrasting their 
forms in a symphony whose nnder-iiote was unity. It appealed to the cultured and tlie unlettered. 
Nature and Art were here. It was a lesson for the philosopher and the ckid. 

The main entrance to the palace, on the Fifth street side, was through a vaulted passage-way, without 
doors, but terminated by a huge screen. Upon this dark surface was wrought in cereals an effect of 
meadow— a study of cat-tnils aii<l glasses. Above this a large copy of the municipal seal, with a buffalo 
being driven from a railroad track by an engine. At right and left, on the side walls, were emblems of 
husbandry and a canoe, done in colored corn. On the floor st<KMl two large stuffed hogs, with corn in 
moath. Instead of proving offensive, those silent guardians of the portal served an excellent purpose. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

by contrast, in heightening the effect of the vision that ])ur8t upon the gaze on passing by them. The 
reverse of the screen was an index to the catalogue of surprises. A landscape was picked out in bits of 
corn-stalks, grasses and husks. A cabin, with path-way leading down, a field of grain enclosed with a 
fence, a family washing of corn-husk clothes hung upon a grass-blade line to th-y, a well with curb and 
old-time sweejj, a grove, and other incidental features, all laid on with regard to persjiective, tone and 
treatment that made the picture artistically complete. 




I:L-,11.iENCE chas. j. claek. 



In the center of the building was an elevated platform, trimmed with mott<5es of welcome done in 
corn. The space beneath was utilized by an exhilnt of seeds put up in very atti'active manner. A 
representation of the railroad bridge, with miniature locomotive on a popcorn track, was built of ears of 
corn in this compartment. High up in the tower above this stand hung a huge bell composed of straw 
and stalks, with a corn-and-pumpkin clapper. Every inch of the interior, as of all the roof-surfaces, 
excepting over the exhibits and corridors, was covered with corn and stalks. 

The sujjporting posts of the building, which were many in number, were effective mediums for the 
disjjlay of ingenuity. The several sub-committees vied with each other in producing the most artistic effects 
with these. By a symmetrical laying on of com some of the posts were changed into Ionic, Gothic, Doric 



aiOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

and Corinthian oolunuiH, 'while nthere were latltMi with IxmnuetH i»f tint^'il ^jrasaHH and {fr»*i">*- Probably 
none of th<* visitors iit thf pahice, up to thiit tim<', w«rf iiwart' of the cliaruiin^ sliados and hu<*s of corn 
liiisks. As iltM-orativf niut«-rialH thfV rival tin- shadf-s and liiifs in wliicli i-vt-ry ft'niinini' h<*art tihds such 
deliKhtM. 

Tlie <-e>ilin^s iiImivi' tin- iHMitlis wfi'i' ornaiuiMitfil witli deviffs wliii-h cannot b«' d>*H(-rilM*d in wonL^ bo 
a« to Convey a suiijicstion of their appi-aranci-. ( ii-oiiictrical Kf^nres, artistic lines nf j^race and novel 
desipiH in cond)inatioii of colors, were siioun. It was a noticeable fact, fre«|uently comnient<-il u|)on by 
observers, that the diversity of tastes displayed and the helpfnl rivalry of the workers in ho instance 
resulted in dishai iiion\. Kverywbere wa> units nf itcfjon and cuncord of coloring'. This is the more 
remarkable becaiwe nf tiie luck of II ^'lanil design except that of spirit and <lesire. The IxHiths 




KEHIUKNCK IIKO. 1>. I'EltKINS. 



were not completed until just before the palace was thrown open and no committee knew precisely what 
the others were doinj;; yet when finished, all blended in harmonious effect 

The eye was buwildered on first seeing the interior of the palace and could detect the indiviilual 
tibject only by repeated ^nsits to the palace. It cannot be trutlifully said that there was a superfluity of 
decoration, but a maze of curious and pleasing features. Turn whii-li way you would, some new delight 
was offered to the vision. Here in this corner swayed a giant si)ider-weV) of strung kernels, with a huge 
Bpi(h«r resting watchfidly in its meshes; there in that alcove was a stairway of golden grain, on the 
spiral steps of which a dainty doll st«jod, clothed in corn-husks of such delicacy that they appeared like silk; 
yonder, a landscape typifying the west, with sun of gold Panels, ceilings, statuettes, lattices, curtains, 
all i>f corn. Flowers composed of husks and grains, but so skillfully made as to serve art's highest end. 
A Hag of corn, bearing the legend: "Statf i>f Our Country;" acorn-stalk music staff with the notes to 
which all people sing " Praise CJod, from whom all blessings flow;" the hunu)n)U8 and the majestic paying 
tribute to the occasion. Endilems of husbandry and motti)e8 significant of the fertility of the land^ 
"The valleys also are covered] with corn," "Sioux City never sleeps," eta, — were disiwsed about the 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



building. The Jackson street entrance was adorned with a screen upon which was worked a rustic scene 
and on the reverse side the inquiry, "Why not anchor in Sioux City?" the lettering being done in 
cereals, and the word " anchor" being represented by an exquisite anchor in colored grains. 




SlOtrX OTTT JOURNAL ItUXLDI.Nll 



Miniature farm-yards, models of the Corn Palace, articles of wearing apparel, maps, pictures, stars, 
eagles, and a seemingly infinite variety of designs were presented to the admiring eye of the public. 
The originality of the decorators and exhibitors was amazing. 

From these brief allusions to the display of products, which were so numerous and intricately 
arranged as to require far more space than is at command in this re^new, the reader will be able to form 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

Boinewhat of nn idea <»f the ex|><>8ition. The Corn Pfllace was an e<lucator. The thousaiuls who saw it 
will not only be i>«>rnianently benefitted by the revelation of new forms of art, but will also derive 
jferpetual advantage from the expression, in comprehensive style, of the resources and magnitude of the 
region. No one could fail to receive enlargetl impressions of the northwest and of Sioux City as the 
commercial capital of the northwest 

The rink building was decorated plaiidy with corn-stniks pendant from the ceilings and arranged 
aljout the sides. This hall was used for drills, band contests, concerts, jiublic speaking and tlie final ball. 
While not especially ornamented, it was exceedingly essential to the carrying out of the piogramme of 
entertainments. 

The principal streets of the city during Festival week were so finely decorated as to command a 
degree of admiration but little less than that be.stowed on tlie Corn Palace itself. Chief among the 
features of the display were the illuminated arches, erected at the intorsoctioiis i>f tlie main streets. 




UKolLlRNOb UK. WU. 11. hUlili. 

These artificial structures consisted of huge spans and cross-trees, towering in pyrainidul fmin to ii height 
of fifty feet and each bearing about 3<)0 jets covered witii glass globes of assorted colors. Eight arches 
spanned Fourth street, which, viewed from the west, appeared like a stream of fire. Two miles of gas-pipe 
were required for this system of lighting, and there were over 8,000 jets. A massive and ornate arch, 
with thatched peaks and elal)orate figures wrought in corn, spanned Pierce street between Fourth and 
Fifth streets. This, also, was illuminated at night with gas jets under glass globes. 

It would require an enumeration of every business house and office in the city to describe the private 
decorations. From a simple veneering of corn in the ear to a complex and carefully drawn plan of 
artistic adornment, each building along the public thoroughfares was made to honor the event The 
decorative mania burst forth in emulative force. Gigantic ears of corn were built; arches, covereil with 
stalks and pumpkins a very etfective material, by the way, in point of color —spanned the sidewalks; 
fronts of buiklings were laid over with solid corn until no sign of brick or wood was visible; store win- 
dows were filled with symbolic figures and emblematic designs; clocks, mortars, shoes, anvils, pigs, villages, 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

corn-fields, palaces, bonnets, hats, clothing, carpenters' tools, grocers' signs, statuettes of Ceres and King 
Corn, in fact every business, trade and calling was represented by some appropriate device in the windows 
and upon the streets. It may be said that the overflow of artistic zeal from the CJorn Palace affected 
every man, woman and child in Sioux City and stirred each one to special effort in the work of beautify- 
ing the city. 

It may be well here to give some account of the details of the Corn Palace Festival. It extended over 
one week, beginning October 3. The central feature, of course, was the Corn Palace itself, which excited 
extraordinary enthusiasm throughout the Northwest, and which the multitudes gathered in Sioux 
City never tired to gaze on. As the Palace approached completion in its beauty and uniqueness, the 
fame of it ran like wildfire, and it was manifest that there would be an immense concourse of visitors. 




GORDON BLOCK. 



Elaborate preparations were made for their entertainment — illuminatiou.s, fireworks for each night, 
processions every day, band contests, military drills, races, etc. The programme in all particulars was 
carried out with an enthusiasm which rendered it even in result better than in anticipation. 

The formal opening of the Corn Palace occurred on the evening of October 2. Crowds of delighted 
visitors thronged through the portals, and there was a dense press of people in Armory Hall, where 
the opening ceremony took place. Senator Charles H. Van Wyck, of Nebraska, the orator of the occasion, 
delivered an address appropriate to the place and all its suggestions. The following is an extract from the 
opening paragraphs of the address: 

We cannot realize the amount of the corn crop, even when tigiirinj,' the thousand million bushels raised annually; neither 
the empire of soil, with capacity unbounde<l, devoted to its tjrowth. We cannot realize as we stand in this grand and novel 
structure, the great wealth tributary to your beautiful city, and the rich area whicli tiiids its market at your doors. Iowa — one 
of the youngest in the sisterhood, yet from her central position, the wonderfvil resources of her soil, the intelligence of her 
people, having sprung at one bound to the first rank and surpassed in the race many of her older sisters, bounde*! by two of 
the greatest rivers in the world — she lays a portion of her bounty at your feet. Northern Nebniaka, so little known a few 
years ago, even by her neighbors, that a citizen of Iowa reported in Washington that it was impossible to build a railroad over 
her impassable mountains -Northern Nebraska, at all events, only a tew years ago a term incognita, now behold in your midst 
the wonderful productions from a soil equal to that of Iowa, and brought here over railroads which traverse the former obteaclee 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

of irapiifixulile muiiQtaiiiK tUiit n"""* fnintry poui« to n-joice anJ sliBre tlie wtviltli of ita pr»iri<>« with ymi. Dakota--8hp has 
H iliiulile Hount' of WMilth iu her l>uuiiJk«w iiml fxhrniHtlotw prairiee iind Ix'Ueatlk the Hnrfiiw of her iuouiit«iuK lUiJ forests 
tlie prec-iuuB mctalH which ailorii thiti wonih-rful oxiiihitioii Dakota, too, is tributary to your >fr<«jitU(«8 uuii proud to briuK her 
offering; aiul uiiit<- in Ihi.s dedio.itiou which atauib as an autfury that all this territory, without rc^'anl t<> Htate lines, looks upon 
vour city as its jfrwit center, lUiJ that iu the HtrutfcicM whii-li may come in tin- future you will stiunl shoulJer to shoulder 
with theiu. More leajfueB away, where was the pastnre-i^round of the buffalo, from the ninueH of Wyoming and Montana, 
lume the ilo8.endnnts of the Shorthorns and Herefords, improve«l by the nutritious Krassee and invi^'initinK climate, to snrpaas 
the E^nKlish stock, showini; still further the wealth and vast t«>rritory which (X)me to rejoice in this aiutpicious event. 

Tiiesiliiy, October 4, ilawiH'd auBpiciuiisly. The weather, iiulewl, wiw all that coulil be desired until 
the last day of the week, when a ilrizzling rain int«rvenwL ThuoHandA of \-i8itor8 from neighboring 
t4iwn« and villages began to arrive at an early hour. Throughout the forenoon regular and special 
trains packed witli linnian freight arrived l)v all the lines of railroad. By W o'cl«»ck. when tiie tirst 




RRHIDBNCE F. V. HK.ANK. 



grand parade appeared to view, tlie crowd was so dense as to make locomotion almost imjxissible for a 
distance of ten blocks along Fourth street and for a considerable distance on the avenues leading thereto. 
Day after day the Miultitude that tiironged the streets presented the same goii(>ia! aspect, save that it 
steadily increased in numbers. No such concourse of people was ever before seen in the Northwest. 

The procession was announced on the programme as "A Grand Characteristic Parade, Representing 
Sioux City in 1854," and the promise was fulfilled. A more entertaining and significaut presentment of 
historic fact would have been ditlicult to devise, and both to surviving pioneers of the Northwest whose 
memories retain the experiences of jtrimitive life, ami to the younger generatinu and to the visitors from 
the east to wiiom the hardships of early westt>rn days were known only by tradition, this opening display 
was, (jerliaps, the most interesting one shown during the festival. 

The parade moved at 10 f/clock a. m., a plattwn of police clearing the way, and after them, a band nf 
musicians. Then came a band of Indians from the reservation — Omahas, Sioux and Winnebagos — number- 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



ing two hundred and fifty. Seventy-five of the Indians were mounted, being in full war-paiut and feather, 
and clad with the skins of wild animals, bright colored j)rints and gaudy cloths. Uttering suppressed 
war-whoops and brandishing weapons as they moved along, there lacked nothing to ])aint the picture which 




WOODBURY COUNTY COUUT HOUSE. 



in 1854 was one of terror to the adventurous settlers of the Northwest. At some distance behind the troop 
of mounted warriors, which went through all the evolutions of Indian warfare— charging with piercing 
whoops, breaking in disorder, reforming with the precision of regular cavalry — there followed the 
remainder of the band in the motley vehicles and equipages which are only to be seen on an Indian 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

reflervatifni. The Ht]unwH ftiul |)u|>o<>Be8 were ileckfnl out in the gaudient of savage fancy, anJ they gayA^i 
at tlie HightH at every hand in wunderment etiaal to tliat with which they were theiuselves regarde<i hy the 
multitude. 

As the Indian l)and spetl on and ])a8.sed out of view, there came, most ap|jro|)riat*ly in the realistic 
panorama, the signs of advancing civilization, the representatives of the vanguard of the mighty army 
which drove out the red man and made his hunting ground a cornfield. The pack-train followed hard 
u|>on the heels of the retreating Indians six ponies liearing a burden of furs and other frontier s|)oil, 
))ound for the trading |)ost They, like the various other figures in this |ieculiar drama, were 
genuine. .\t their sitle was George Tackett, an experiein'e«l trapper in those wild ilays, who s|H'aks the 
language of the native. He was clad in buckskin garb, with ritle slung for instant ust*, and luokeil like 








III siiii:n(1: wm. i,. jov. 

the frontiersman lie used to lie. It tlie pencil of a Stanley C4»uld have cauglit liim then, historic art would 
hav(> been enriched. 

Next came the stage coach, with Tom I'arrott, the second oldest stage driver in the Northwest, on the 
Imx. The stage contained express messengers, duly armed, and a "friendly" Indian. 

The emigrant train of "the '50s" followed next. There was the spectacle of the old time "prairie 
sch(M>ners," drawn by oxen, and filled with the characteristic household effects, the working tools and 
scant |K)ssossions of tlie pioneer. Behind some wagons was the nr>ver-failing feed-box hung on, and over 
it the s])iniiiiig whecd iiiid venerable splint-iiottoined chairs; in rear of others the family cow was led; the 
rear of another held a crate in which were ducks and chickens; one wagon liad lost a liind wheel and 
came trailing along alone on a pole. The travel-stained canvas bore legenils, copied from literal inscrip- 
tions remembered by the early comers. 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

The next picture was especially realistic, a freight train Iwiund for the Black Hills camps. It was no 
illusion, for the immense vans had seen actual service. Three vans, lashed together in true frontier style, 
piled full of freight, were drawn by six-mule teams, the driver guiding them with a single line, and the 
bells upon their harness jingling merrily as they moved along. It was a true survivor of the old-time 
prairie life. 

It would require too much space to describe particularly the "floats" and the various other repre- 
sentations of pioneer days which made uj) the first day's parade. What has been said will suffice as a sug- 
gestion of the comprehensiveness and accuracy of this particular display, and also of the other parades 
during the Festival. 

On Weibiesday morning the Industrial Parade occurred. On Thursday and Friday the crowd grew 
to prodigious proportions. The feature of Thursday morning's entertainment was the Military Parade, 




RTorx oTxy linseed oii, wokks. 



and on Friday morning there was the Consolidated Keview, while in tlie afterncM)n tlie Grand Lodge 
of Iowa Masons laid the corner stone of the Chamber of Commerce building. On Saturday night, 
October 8, the doors of the first Corn Palace were closed to the public. 

But a day or two later, and before the building was torn down, two interesting events occurred. 
A party of eminent railroad men, composed of Cornelius Yanderbilt, Mr. Ferris, Albert Keep, Chauncey 
M. Depew, Marvin Hughitt, J. M. Whitman, Mr. Webb of the Wagner Car Company, Vice-President 
Sykes of the Northwestern system, Mr. DeCosta of the Lake Shore road and Mr. Fitch of the Sioux City 
and Pacific road, were traveling by special train over the lines in which they were interested and signified 
a desire to visit the Corn Palace. Although the exposition was then closed, the city authorities 
and a number of Sioux City business men received this party, in an informal manner, Monday morning, 
and conducted it through the Palace, still undisturbed in decorations and exhibits. The visitors 

8 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

exprPBBed hearty appreciation of the endences of the prosperity of this region. Mr. Depew wbb called on 
to addnwB tlie coiupniiy aii<l BiK>k*> in his ehxiuent and felicitouB style. 

Two days latter. President Cleveland and his party, then on a tour tliroufjh the west and south, 
visit^'d tliH Corn Pnlaco. Althou|.;h their rout<> was through Sioux City, tliey had at an earlier 
liny, liej-ause of lack of time and other engagements, declined to include a stop at Sioux City in 
their programme of the t<iur. The city council, business associations and management of the Com 
I'alace, Ijiid united in forninl invitation to tlie President, but for the reasons named the invitation was not 




KBHIDENCK B. f, PETBK-S. 



ia>ii'i:Nc r, J. T. cnKNEY. 



favorably resixindeil to. But after the President was well on his way to the west, the fame of the Palace 
was such tiiat renewed invitation was accepted, although acceptance involved an interrujjtion of the 
running schedule of the special train whicii bore the President's party. This was the only departure 
therefrom made by the President during his whole tour of the country, and the compliment to the Corn 
Palace was thus only the more signiticant 

On the clear and frosty morning of Wednesday, October 12, the train l)earing the company of eminent 
personages arrived in Sioux City. Mayor Clcland, regariliug the wishes of the President, informally 
received the party. A large coucoorse of citizens was present The President and Mrs. Cleveland, 



* SIOVX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

Mr. and Mrs. Postmaster-General W. F. Vilas, Judge Wilson Bissell, Col. Lament, and others of the 
presidential party were assigned to carriages, and, escorted by a military company, were driven directly to 
the Corn Palace. The public were excluded from the building. Ladies of the Decorative Committee and 
a few invited guests were admitted. 

The President and friends moved about the building, viewing the exhibits and decorations with 
evident interest. No speeches were made. Mr. Cleveland expressed surprise at the quality of the corn, 
and remarked that it certainly must be a rich country. He asked many questions relative to the 
productiveness and resources of the Northwest. His curiousity was aroused by specimens of parti-colored 
"Squaw Corn," and he said, "With your permission, I will take one of these," putting an ear of the corn 
in his pocket. Mrs. Cleveland was the recipient of numerous boquets and other souvenirs of the Palace. 

The President's party remained in the Palace half an hour, engaged in pleasant conversation 
and unpretentious and admiring survey of the exposition, and was then escorted to the train, which 
at once departed. 




ANDREWS, FliETCHER \ CA-SE S MILLS. 



The visit of the President's party was, under the circumstances, a fair illustration of the interest 
which was excited throughout the country in the Festival. The leading papers of all the large cities sent 
special correspondents who daily telegi-apheil elaborate reports of its featiu'es and ])rogress. The leading 
picttu'ial papers, like Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's in this country, and even the London 
Illustrated News, published copious illustrations and gave extended accounts. 

\]\nm the departure of the President the Corn Palace of 1887 closed its doors. Workmen were soon 

engaged in tearing down the building and hundreds of souvenir-seekers were busy gathering mementoes 

of the great success. 

The Coun Palace of 1888. 

The success of the Sioux City Corn Palace of 1887 was so signal, and the impression made by it upon 
the public mind so deep and abiding, that it became by virtue of its own force, a permanent 
and distinctive Sioux City enterprise. It was taken for granted by the tens of thousands of visitors who 
looked upon tlie first embodiment of the Corn Palace idea, and it was the common remark, that 



SIODX CITY ILLUSTRATED. • 

Siom City hIuhiIiI !«• tli<' hcviu- of iiii (uimiiil Imrvi-rit im(,'eaut u|»<)n the lines marked oat or Hagge8t4Ml by 
tin- FestivHl of 18h7. Local aspiration auHweriiig to the earueHt deiuaml of the Northwest, involvetl this 
result, tiie ioteri'st of which running far Iwyoml tlie limits of the rpiwr MiHSouri Valley enlists attention 
u hicli may almost he ilescrilHHl as national in extent. 

In Irutii tin- ixirtalsof the Corn Palace of 1W7 had not lieiMi tinally closed u|>iin the jxdilic Iw'fore prep- 
arations lM'},'iin for tin- Corn Palace of 1S.S8. A [HTmanent or^janization to carry on tin- cnterprirte was at 
once map|>e<l out In the early spring the work was tak«Mi up anew an<l prosecut4*d with vigor. 
The enterprise was regularly incor|>orated under the laws of the State, the incor]Mirators including the 
wealthiest and most prominent citi/.ens, and capit^d ample for all pur|Mises was promptly suliscrilted. 



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The plan for the Corn Palace of 1888 is identical in piiriM>se with tliat of 1887, hut it is incomparably 
more comprehenHive in .scope and more complete and elahorate in detail. The development of the 
plan fiiis year is under circumstances entirely ilill'ereiit from those surrounding the tirst Corn Palace. 
Then it was an unknown |iri>lileni, every element of which was novel, and even the |>ossil)ility of solution 
was at tirst in doidit. The Corn Palace association this year could walk in confidence in the light of the 
hrilliant demonstration of last year. The rich results of its eminent experiences were the sure guides to a 
grander success. The dis<'overius of the decorative uses of the corn jilant and of its familiars of the 
field were at once suggestions of the marvelous |K)ssihilities of the C»)rn Palace idea and an inspiring 
incentive t<i effort for their full realization. 

The Corn Palace of 1888 is therefore lK)th an improvement on and an enlargement of the Corn Palace 
of 1887. ^\ herover there was crudity it has heen removed, wherever there was imperfection it has been 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



corrected, and all the wonderful beauties and significance of the thought have been refined and adequately 
represented. It is not proposed to attempt to describe here in words the Corn Palace which will be opened 




lEAVEY liKA.NU OPBKA HOUSE AND CHAMBES OF COMMERCE. 



to the public during the Festival of 1888, from September 24 to October fi, for the subject is one which writ- 
ten language is peculiarly inadequate to set forth. The drawing of the Corn Palace of 1888, which is given 
on a former page of this publication, affords, in a general way, suggestion of the contour and proportions of 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 



tho exterior of the Btnicture. The architecture mny he hK)8ely descrihed ns of tlie pfivilion style, airy ami 
{jrmefiil, and orit^inal in eoiul)iiiati<>n »is it is miiiiue in |iiir|H>se, rwjujrinn for it« l>e«t etfect tin- rich 
blending and nintrastii of the cohirs of the natural prodiictji with which it is dectiratetl. The 
structure is firmly built, with stron),' walls and tiglit roof, and with n view to the comfort of rlBitora 
in any weatlier. With ground diniensirHis of 150 l>y laO feet, the edifice affords ample interior sjiace for 
the Bi)lendid adornnicnt-s and subst^mtiid displays wiiich it will contain. The interior will bo dis|X)8ed in 
an entirely different manner from that of the first palace with spacioits courts and corridors and galleries, 
as well as retiring riMuns and toilet conveniences and all the other arrangement* necessary to its purjxise 
and to the accommotlation of the public. 








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The torn Talace it.sclf, tliougii the central and chanicteristii' feature of the Festival, will l>e 
surrounded with many accessories to liighttMi its interest. All tlie princi])al features of the first Corn 
Palace Festival will l>e ex|)anded and perfected, and the programme includes also many new and capital 
attractions. The novel scheme of public illumination, which was so notable a feature of the Festival of 
1SS7. will lie carried out on a far more extensive scale. C)ne of the most pleasing incident.s of the occasion 
will be the elaborub' spectacles presented by tiie grand parades, illustrative of subjects ap|>n>priate to tlie 
time and place, which will occur on the several days of the Festival. For these especial preparation has 
been iiiailf upon a plan in which expense and elfort were not considered as obstacles. In addition the 
programme includes features which run the whole gamut of poj)ular artuisements and siM)rt« - races and 
excursions; the nuirshalling of the full military strength of the Northwest anil competitive drills lu'tweeu 
the various companies; a grand showing of musical a.ssociations; the jiageanfry of civic and benevolent 
organizations; pyrotechnic displays; the fornud opening of the E'eavey Grand Opera House, the corner- 
Btoue of which was laid during the Festival of I8H7, etc., etc. In short, the design and preparations 



SIOUX CITY ILLUSTRATED. 

are such as to make full draft upon, as well as to illustrate, the resources of Sioux City and the 
Northwest, insuring an entertainment so distinctive in character and so grand in method as to take 
rank as an event of national interest, and to be verily a carnival expressive of the satisfaction of 
a great people. 

The success of the Corn Palace Festival of 1(S88 is more than assured. It is certified by the eminent 
success of the first Corn Palace in 1887. That remarkable achievement was the result of effort 
compressed within a few weeks, against unfavorable circumstances which have already been described, 
whereas the opportunities of a whole year of preparation and the light of fi-uitful experience are behind 



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KESIDENCE J. L. FOLLETT. 



the Corn Palace of 1888. Moreover, in the agricultural domain of the Upper Missouri Valley there has 
been a season of prosperity which, this year, even beyond the generous bounty of ordinary seasons, 
accentuates the significance of the Corn Palace. Seed-time and harvest, which never fail in the 
unrivaled Corn Kegion of the Northwest about Sioux City, have been propitious, and the yield of corn 
and grain and every growth rejoices the heart and moves to celebration. 

To such a prospect Sioux City extends a cordial invitation to the world, and to the million visitors 
who will gaze upon the Corn Palace of 1888, assurance of their fullest satisfaction. 



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